JEROME CARDAN 205 



episodes of his past life, to wit the fall of a house. It 

 was not his own house this time, but it was sufficiently 

 near to induce him to change his abode without delay. 

 Next door to the house he had hired in the Via 

 Gombru stood a palace belonging to a certain Gramigna. 

 " The entire house fell, and was ruined in a single night, 

 and together with the house perished the owner there- 

 of." It was believed that this man had divers powerful 

 enemies, and, in order that he might secure his position, 

 he contrived to bring certain of his foes into his house, 

 having first made a mine of gunpowder under the 

 portico, and set a match thereto. But for some reason 

 or other the plot miscarried the night when he destined 

 to carry it out. Gramigna went to see what was amiss, 

 and at that very moment the mine exploded and 

 brought the house to the ground. After this explosion 

 Cardan moved to a house in the Galera quarter, belong- 

 ing to the family of Ranucci ; but he did not find this 

 dwelling perfect, as he was forced to vacate the rooms 

 which were most to his taste on account of the bad 

 state of the ceilings, the plaster of which, more than 

 once, fell down upon his head. 



In his Paralipomena, "the last fruit off an old tree," 

 which he put together about this time, there are numerous 

 stories of prodigies and portents ; of doors which would 

 not close, and doors which opened of their own accord ; 

 of rappings on the walls, and of mysterious thunderings 

 and noises during the night. He tells, at length, the 

 story, already referred to, of the strange thing which 

 happened to him, on the eve of his departure from 

 Pavia in 1562, while he was awaiting tidings from 

 Rome as to his appointment at Bologna. " I wore on 

 the index finger of my right hand a selenite stone set 

 in a ring, and on my left a jacinth, which I never took 



